Hussain Haqqani appears before Abbottabad Commission, no one was aware of May 2 raid

Hussain Haqqani appears before Abbottabad Commission, no one was aware of May 2 raid

Pakistan’s former Ambassador to United States, Hussain Haqqani has played down the claims that he and the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari were aware of US Forces led May 2 raid in Abbottabad that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Haqqani told the Abbottabad Commission that no one in Pakistan was aware of the US raid in Abbottabad. He said that US raid on May 2 in Abbottabad earlier this year was clear cut violation of Pakistan’s airspace and the government and Pakistan Embassy in
United states had strongly protested against the incursion.

The former envoy to US made the statement when he appeared before the commission to answer various question to clear his position on the May 2 incident. Today, the session was presided by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal.

“We vehemently protested to the US after the Abbottabad raid,” mainatined Haqqani.

Haqqani told the commission that he was on his way to Islamabad from London and was at Heathrow airport when he had received the news about the US raid. He further added that with the news of US raid, he was given directions to return to Washington DC immediately
to register a protest with the US government.

“I faithfully and sincerely carried out the directives,” Haqqani urged.

He further added that the US Forces led operation was a violation of international laws and that he had met with America’s special Ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan and registered a strong protest.

Haqqani also underplayed the allegations that he had issued thousands of visas to Americans. The former envoy to US said that he always followed country policy and laws while issuing visas and that the accusations of issuing more than 400 visas to Americans
were baseless. He insisted that he had never issued visas without permission.

In the meanwhile, the Lahore High Court dismissed a petition seeking Haqqani’s lie detector Test. In the petition, the supplicant  had sought directions to the federal government to use “lie detecting machine” on Hussain Haqqani, to know
the truth in the ‘memo scandal’.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=6710

Posted by Asma Rafique on Dec 20 2011. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry